RAAM Cycling Challenge – Texas

The RAAM Cycling Challenge – Texas page, provides you with the official registration information, ride distances etc. and if you scroll down a bit, videos, interviews and ride reports for this event. If you don’t see a ride report and you participated in the event in the past, feel free to type something up and we’ll add it here!

Date: March 23-25, 2019

Event:RAAM Texas Cycling Challenge

Route Distances: 200 and 500 Miles

About the Ride:

The Texas Challenge features the best of the famed Texas Hill Country. It’s spring time in the Hill Country and the flowers – Blue Bonnets and Indian Paint Brush – will be blooming. Temps are generally 50-80 F. Mornings can be foggy with clearing by afternoon. The event starts/finishes in Castroville, Texas, the Little Alsace of Texas, about 30 miles west of San Antonio. Texas, the Lone Star State, is ranch country.

The 200 and 500-mile routes are roughly concentric loops, sharing the first 72 and last 63 miles. There are thousands of miles of paved winding ranch roads with little or no traffic. You’ll experience some of the best cycling in the USA.

The 200-mile route is challenging – 211 miles with 9,935′ of climbing. The course lies entirely within the Hill Country – many small ranches. The climbing is distributed fairly evenly throughout the route. Racers will ride unsupported, so there will be three aid stations on the route.

The 500-mile route is similarly challenging – 512 miles with 22,685’ of climbing. The southern and western half of the route is within what is known as Southwest Texas – more remote, larger ranches, with several long steep climbs. The northern and eastern half of the route is within the Hill Country. The 500-mile race is the first RAAM Qualifier road race of the domestic ultra-racing season. It is also a great warm-up for racers and crew planning on doing RAAM in June.

Both the 200 and 500-mile courses are moderately difficult – ideally suited to advanced beginning to intermediate level ultra-racers.